Prevalence of Celiac Disease in the United States is Found to be 1 in 133

Scott Adams

In 1994 I was diagnosed with celiac disease, which led me to create Celiac.com in 1995. I created this site for a single purpose: To help as many people as possible with celiac disease get diagnosed so they can begin to live happy, healthy gluten-free lives. Celiac.com was the first site on the Internet dedicated solely to celiac disease. In 1998 I foundedÂ The Gluten-Free Mall, Your Special Diet Superstore!, and I am the co-author of the book Cereal Killers, and founder and publisher of Journal of Gluten Sensitivity.

Celiac.com 2/13/2003 - According to a recently published large-scale
multi-year and multi-center study, 1 in 133, or a total of 2,131,019 Americans
have celiac disease. Alessio Fasano, MD, et. al., and colleagues screened
13,145 subjects using serum antigliadin antibodies and anti–endomysial
antibodies (EMA). Those who had positive EMA results were screened again
for human tissue transglutaminase IgA antibodies and CD-associated human
leukocyteantigen DQ2/DQ8 haplotypes, and when possible, intestinalbiopsies
were also given. Additionally, for those with biopsy-proven celiac disease,
4,508 first-degree relatives and 1,275 second-degree relatives were also
screened for the disease. A total of 3,236 symptomatic patients and 4,126
not-at-risk individuals were screened.

These results are much higher than previous
studies have found, and they indicate that celiac disease is perhaps the
most common genetic disorder in the United States, as well as one of the
most poorly diagnosed diseases.